It Happened One Night
by TheGiantSquid
Summary: What really happened that night the Death Eaters came for the Longbottoms?...She felt a thrill over horror sweep through her before he screamed 'CRUCIO'...Written preHBP.


**It Happened One Night**

It had been only four days since the Dark Lord had fallen. The Wizarding World was again at peace and its inhabitants were finally allowed to breathe a sigh of relief, a breath they had been holding for some 15 years. Of course, it all came at a price—the deaths of the Potters, and Alice Longbottom's best friend. She couldn't remember much about the day she'd found out about Lily and James' deaths. She just remembered that she had cried; she had cried hard that day, and the days that followed. She cried for friends lost, for relationships ruined, and for a little boy who would never grow to know his parents....

* * *

The young woman found herself gazing aimlessly out her window, watching the cars pass, and thinking about her friends and family...her dead friends and family. She missed them more than life itself and felt tears well up in her eyes. She found out that although time did help heal the wounds of her heart, she would never truly be the person she once was before. The War had permanently scarred Alice Meadowes Longbottom and she didn't think she'd ever fully recover. She was suddenly jolted back into reality by a loud knock on her front door. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she pulled the door open and inwardly groaned.

"Hello, Joan," said Alice, forcing a smile. She loved Frank's mother, she really did, but sometimes the woman just was too overbearing.

"Hello, Alice dear," said her mother-in-law, pushing her way into the house. "How are you? How's Frank? How's my precious grandson?"

Alice smiled and led Mrs. Longbottom into Neville's room, where he was taking a nap. The two stood together, fondly watching the one-year-old sleep, before they tiptoed out of the room.

"He's just perfect, Alice," gushed Joan. "Frank said he was already doing magic. Is that true?"

Alice puffed up her chest a little bit. "Indeed he is," she stated proudly. "He can float a few things and accidentally started a small fire the other day! It was wonderful!" Only in the Wizarding world would starting a fire be wonderful. Joan smiled broadly at this information.

"Congratulations, my dear!" she said, just as proudly. "Looks like you're going to have one powerful wizard on your hands!" Alice beamed. Compliments were hard to come by when it came to Joan Longbottom.

"Now, my dear, where is my son?"

"He had to pull a double shift at the Ministry, but he'll be home around 9, I believe," replied Alice. She hated it when her husband had to work so late, but there were still a large number of Death Eaters at large, including the deadly Lestranges; and with Frank being one of the best Aurors in the Ministry, he was often working late, especially in the past few days since Voldemort's downfall. Joan just pursed her lips and nodded.

"Alice, darling, I have a little gift for you, just between you and me, all right?" Alice was a little startled that her mother-in-law was giving her a gift, especially just for her. Joan was smirking while she rummaged through her gigantic purse, before pulling how a huge box full of gum. Alice smiled broadly and gave Joan a warm hug.

"Oh, thank you so much Joan! Oh, and it's my favorite kind, too! Thank you!"

Joan smiled widely. She never understood her daughter-in-law's slight fixation with chewing gum, but she couldn't resist buying the mammoth box for Alice. The younger woman immediately opened up a wrapper and shoved the gum into her mouth, smacking away.

"Well," said Joan, pleased that Alice liked her gift, "I'm afraid I must be going—there's a celebration party at Arabella's and I'm afraid I'm already late. You'll tell Frank that I stopped by?"

Alice nodded and showed her mother-in-law to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, then, Joan?"

"Yes, yes, of course! I'll have gift for Neville, too," gushed the grandmother. It was Alice's turn to purse her lips. She didn't want her only son spoiled, but thought it best to just let it go this time. After all, it was a time to celebrate. Peace had come at last. Alice hugged Joan tightly and they kissed each other on the cheek.

"Good night."

"Good night, my dear."

Grinning, Alice closed the door and thanked the gods that this particular visit from Joan had been short, even pleasant. And she had gotten gum! She heard a small cry come from her son's room and she found Neville standing in his crib, holding out his hands. Alice picked up her son and carried him into the living room where she met her husband.

"Frank! I didn't hear you apparate in!"

Frank Longbottom grinned mischievously at his wife, and walked over to where she was standing with his son. He gave her a deep kiss before kissing the top of Neville's head and ruffling up his hair.

"Who says I apparated?" he said with a wink. "I got off work early and thought it'd be a _brilliant _surprise for you." Alice laughed warmly. _Maybe I'll let myself relax, just this once_._ Allow myself to enjoy my family and partake in the celebrations_.

"So what's for dinner?" asked Frank, rubbing his hands together in anticipation, practically drooling. It was now Alice's time to smirk. "It's a surprise," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Is it, now?" smirked back Frank. Alice laughed again and placed Neville in his playpen. She grabbed her husband's hand and was leading him into the kitchen when she suddenly felt very warm, as if she'd just been doused with a hot bucket of water. Her eyes widened in fear. There's only one thing—one _spell_—that made a person feel like that.

"_Frank!_"

"Shh," he said, pulling out his wand, his eyes darting everywhere. "Go get Neville. Get out of the house and go to Headquarters. _GO!_" But Alice didn't move.

"There is no way in _hell_ I'm leaving you here alone, is that clear?" she hissed, also pulling out her wand. "That was an anti-apparating spell and you won't be able to hold them off alone—"

"How right you are, Alice," came a silky voice behind them. Alice and Frank spun around and found themselves face to face with four fully-masked Death Eaters, wands drawn, and one was holding...

"Neville!" cried Alice, dropping her wand and lunging for her son. But the Death Eater was too quick for her and stepped out of the way. Alice landed on the floor with a hard thud and was then grabbed by the neck of her robes and pulled up from the floor. She found herself being held by a Death Eater who was pointing his wand at her head.

"I suggest you drop your wand, Longbottom," snarled the Death Eater holding Alice. "We wouldn't want anything to happen to you precious wife and child, now would we?"

Alice watched in despair as her husband reluctantly lowered his own wand before throwing it across the room.

"Sit, Frank," ordered the silky voice, which Alice then recognized as Bellatrix Lestrange. There were only so many female Death Eaters, so it wasn't hard to deduce whom the she was. _Her husband's probably here too. And his brother_, thought Alice miserably. _But who's the fourth?_

Frank glared at his attackers but sat down in a dining room chair. "What do you want Bellatrix?" he spat. Alice looked to the offending Death Eater, whose eyes gleamed maliciously, before taking off her mask.

"You knew then?" she asked, hatred practically pouring from her pureblooded veins.

"Well, considering there's only about three females among the ranks of Voldemort, it wasn't exactly difficult to figure out, now, was it?" snarled Alice. Bellatrix turned slowly, her face full of fury, and Alice shuddered. The woman's eyes showed no emotion when she viciously slapped Alice across the face. Pain ripped through Alice's cheek and her eyes stung terribly, but she refused to cry. Frank shot out of his chair but he was immediately restrained by the other two male Death Eaters.

"Leave her alone, you bitch! You came here for me! Let them go!" Frank was now struggling forcefully against the clutches of the two Death Eaters. Bellatrix yawned theatrically and pointed her wand at Alice's heart.

"Continue to struggle, Frankie, and I will kill her and your pitiful child, _is that clear?_" Frank stopped struggling but kept glaring at her with contempt.

"What do you want with us?" he demanded through gritted teeth. Bellatrix smirked but did not answer; instead, she turned to face Alice again. Neville, long ago sensing something wasn't right, had been screaming and crying throughout the ordeal.

"Shut. Him. Up." She hissed to Alice, and thrust the distraught child into his mother's arms. Alice grabbed hold of her son tightly and vowed to never let him out of her sight again. She muttered a silencing charm on him before placing him in his playpen.

"Sit!" barked Bellatrix, pointing to a chair opposite of her husband. The moment Alice sat down, the Death Eaters magically bounded her to the seat and she was unable to move from her position, watching her husband fume with rage. _If there was ever a time when he would use the Killing Curse, tonight would be it,_ Alice thought despondently.

"Now," said Bellatrix, idly twirling Alice's wand. "We want information. We want to know where the Dark Lord is." Alice blinked. Surely, she was joking! Across from her, Frank let out a hollow laugh.

"He's dead, Bella. Remember? He's_ dead_ and he's not coming back!"

"Do not lie to us!" shrieked Bellatrix. "We know he is alive! He would never leave us! We are his most faithful followers!"

"HE'S DEAD!" bellowed Frank and what followed was one of the loudest silences Alice had ever heard; it had become so quiet, in fact, that she'd began to wonder if the Death Eaters had placed a silencing charm on the house. Then the shortest of the four followers of Voldemort stepped forward to where Frank was sitting and stared at him for a moment before speaking.

"Do not lie to us, Frank," the man said in a dangerous, vaguely familiar voice. The Auror looked up at the man standing before him and spat at his masked face. The Death Eater stood there for a moment before raising his wand and pointing it at Frank's heart.

"You will pay for that," he hissed softly before screaming "_CRUCIO!_"

"NO!" shouted Alice. She struggled to get out of her restraints as she watched the love of her life screaming and convulsing in his chair. Tears were streaming down both their faces and Alice knew that her husband was going through unbelievable pain.

"PLEASE STOP!" she begged the masked man. He was leaving the curse on for so long. Much too long..._Oh God, oh God, oh God, please stop_, she pleaded silently. She started to hyperventilate as she watched her husband's screams slowly turn into soft moans.

"STOP!" she yelled again. "_STOP!_ We don't know where Voldemort is or what happened to him! STOP HURTING MY HUSBAND!"

Mercifully, the man lifted the curse and slowly turned to face Alice. Frank lay slumped in his change, his breaths rapid but shallow. Alice wanted to throw up and started to gag. She raised her head and the world suddenly seemed to come to a standstill: the Death Eater had removed his mask...

A 19-year-old boy had removed his mask...

Barty Crouch, Jr....

Alice felt her insides turn to ice as she stared into the handsome face of a boy just a few years younger than herself...a boy who had attended Hogwarts with her and Frank...a boy who'd had a crush on Alice for as long as she could remember.

But now he was staring down at her with the utmost look of contempt on his face, a look she had never seen on him before. _This can't be happen. Oh, God, please tell me this isn't happening. Not this, please God, anything but this_....

"What's the matter Alice?" he asked throatily. "Don't you recognize me?" His hardened eyes were boring into her and she felt herself shudder involuntarily.

"You're doing this out of your own free will, aren't you?" she asked him quietly after a few moments had passed. He stared at her and then gave her a demented, crooked smile.

"I serve the Dark Lord, yes, out of my own free will. He is my master and I obey only him."

Alice looked intently at the boy she used to know and felt tears well up in her eyes; she allowed a short sob escape from her throat. She quickly realized that her family was not going to get out of this alive...

"Tell me where out master is, Alice, and I will spare you and your child's life," Crouch said in a harsh whisper, his wand still pointing at Frank's heart. She painfully noticed that he had not included husband in the twisted deal.

Another sob escaped her throat and she heard Bellatrix laugh cruelly.

"Do you remember when we first met, Alice?" Crouch asked softly, causing Alice to shiver again.

"...how could I forget..." she whispered.

_Alice and Lily were walking down the large Hogwarts corridor when they spotted a young, sandy-haired boy standing in the middle of the hallway, wringing his hands and looking as if he was about to cry. The two girls rushed forward towards the boy, who clearly was a lost first year. _

"_Hey there," Alice said softly, resting a hand on the boy's shoulder. He raised his red-rimmed eyes to meet Alice's, whose heart wrenched at the utterly lost look on his face. _

"_I'm sorry," he choked out. "I don't know where I am. I got separated from the other first years_..._"_

"_It's ok," Alice said soothingly, casting Lily an anxious look. "What's your name? Mine's Alice Meadowes and this is my good friend Lily Evans. We're third year Gryffindors. What house are you in?" _

_The boy looked between the two girls before replying. "I'm Barty Crouch, Jr. I'm in Ravenclaw." He looked somewhat put out by that. _

"_Pleased to meet you, Barty," said Alice with a warm smile. "We know where Ravenclaw Tower is, so there's nothing to worry about. I got lost on my first day, too, but you get used to the castle's layout real quick, so don't fret."_

_Barty looked quite uncertain and still rather embarrassed, but he nodded nonetheless. Alice smiled again._

"_Follow us, then," she said. The trio walked the remainder of the way to the Tower in silence. Upon reaching the portrait of the recently assigned Knight, the three stopped and Alice frowned._

"_Er_..._I don't know the password," she said sheepishly. _

"_Perhaps we could knock loudly on the painting," Barty piped up. Alice and Lily grinned at one another. _

"_What?" he asked suspiciously. _

_Alice shook her head. "It's nothing. But you are definitely a Ravenclaw." At this, Barty grinned widely and blushed to the roots of his hair. _

"_Thanks," he mumbled, shuffling his feet and glancing up shyly before dropping his gaze and shuffling his feet again._

_Just then the portrait creaked open and one of the Ravenclaw prefects walked out. _

"_Oh, thank goodness!" she said when she spotted Barty. "We were wondering what happened to you!" She saw the two Gryffindors standing off to the side. _

"_Thank you so much for bringing him back to us!" she said. _

"_It wasn't a problem," said Lily._

"_It was a pleasure," replied Alice, flashing another brilliant smile at Barty, who blushed even more. _

"_Thank you," he said shyly._

"_You're most certainly welcome," Alice grinned. "See you tomorrow, then. Oh, and Barty?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Welcome to Hogwarts."_

"Yes," Crouch said softly, cupping Alice's face with his hand. "I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you...You were so beautiful and innocent and oh, God, how I loved you..." Alice shuddered; he was much too close.

"But you never returned my affections," he breathed. His face was only a few inches away from hers. Tears were flowing freely down Alice's cheeks as she fought the urge to spit in his face.

"Why did you choose _him_, Alice?" he said, worming his way closer. "You deserve better...you were supposed to be mine, Alice, _mine_."

Suddenly a loud scream ripped through the house. Crouch jerked back violently and Alice let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Her relief was short-lived, however, when she realized that Bellatrix was torturing her husband again. Frank's bindings had worn off and he was now rolling around on the floor, gasping and sobbing, and letting out the occasional scream.

"Oh, God, please Barty, make them stop!" she shrieked. _Oh God, oh God, they're leaving it on for so long. Oh God, please don't let him die!_

Crouch was watching Frank's suffering with a mad gleam in his eye. He slowly turned back to Alice and smiled a sadistic smile, causing her to shudder again.

He leaned forward. "Would you die for him, Alice? Would _he_ die for _you_?" Alice inhaled sharply. Frank was no longer screaming or making any noise whatsoever; he was now only twitching on the floor, tears still streaming down his face.

"Please, Barty," she whispered, her eyes never leaving Frank's body. "Please stop this."

Crouch stared at her for what seemed like an eternity before responding. "Then tell us where our master is. We know you know. Just tell us, Alice...agree to go away with me and we will find our master together. We will be together, like we were always meant to be..."

Alice tore her eyes away from her tortured husband and looked straight into Crouch's eyes.

"Fuck—you," she said through gritted teeth, seething with rage, and then spat in his face.

His expression changed instantly into cold fury. Raising himself up to his full height, he wiped his face clean with the sleeves of his robes before promptly slapping Alice across the face. For the second time that night, pain tore through Alice's check, but she _did not_ allow her head to move one inch. She glared steadfastly at the man—no _boy_—in front of her with a look of pure loathing.

"Oh, this is getting boring!" whined Bellatrix. She was still holding the Cruciatus curse on Frank. "Can we start on _her_ now?" she asked with a malevolent grin.

"No," said Crouch, holding up his hand. "She's mine. Why don't you go have some fun with the brat over there?"

"NO!" screamed Alice, struggling to pry herself from the confines of her chair.

"YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!" she shouted at Bellatrix, who was making her way over to Neville's playpen. "Stay away from him! STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM, YOU GODDAMN _BITCH!_"

Alice knew she was losing control of any sanity she had left but she didn't care. They were _not_ going to touch her child!

Bellatrix turned around and stared at Alice with a raised eyebrow. "My, my, my," she sneered. "Such language coming from the likes of you. I'm impressed." The woman than let out a harsh laugh and once again turned her attention back to Neville.

Then somewhere in the corner of her mind, Alice vaguely remembered hearing words being shouted before her body was hit with the Cruciatus curse. Her limbs were instantly set on fire and Alice let out a bloodcurdling scream. The pain was beyond anything imaginable. It was pain beyond pain. She wanted to die...

Crouch suddenly released her from both the curse and bindings, which caused Alice to fall forward from the chair. He deftly caught her before she hit the floor and pulled her into his arms.

"Now Alice," he said quietly, cupping her face in his hand again, in what would normally be an act of affection, but for him was instead an act of possession. She was shaking uncontrollably and could not make an effort to pull away from the detestable man.

"I can make this all go away," he continued. "I can make this stop, to _all go away_. Just tell us where He is Alice. Just tell us where He is and agree to come along with me, and this will stop. We can even bring Neville along and raise him as our own. Frank is lost to you now," he said, gesturing to where her husband lay twitching on the floor, still under the curse. Alice let a loud sob escape from her lips.

"Accept the inevitable, my with me if you want your son to survive this night."

Alice raised her tear-stained face to look Crouch in the eyes. She hazily heard Bellatrix scream "_Obliviate!_" somewhere in the background.

"I hate you," she whispered.

Crouch sighed. "Then what is done, is done. Goodbye, my love."

He raised his wand and pointed it at her. She felt a thrill over horror sweep through her before he screamed "_CRUCIO!_" and Alice Longbottom knew no more.

* * *

"Is there any hope for them?" Albus Dumbledore asked the young Healer before him.

The woman's eyes filled with tears. "I'm so sorry, Professor," she said quietly. "The damage was...extensive. Especially for Mr. Longbottom. He was under the curse for...for a very long time. Their minds are almost completely gone.

"I...don't not think there's any hope of recovery for Frank, but his wife was not as...affected. However, I simply cannot give you any false hope...only time can tell whether she will recover from this...attack."

Dumbledore took many minutes to absorb this information before he nodded silently to Healer Miriam Standish. "Thank you, my dear," he said softly. She sniffled and nodded before leaving the Headmaster alone in the hospital room.

Dumbledore strode over to a window that overlooked the streets of London and absently ran his hand through his long silvery beard. He stood there for what seemed like hours before the pain in his heart became too much for him to handle.

He sank down into the nearest chair and he cried. He cried hard for the second time in one week. Albus Dumbledore, one of the greatest wizards who ever lived and The Only One He Ever Feared, cried for friends lost, for relationships ruined, and for two little boys who would never grow to know their parents....


End file.
